Why do you want to do it? Is it an important and practical problem, something worth your time and effort, something that could be beneficial to you, your students and others?
Is the problem stated clearly and in the form of a question? Is it broad enough to allow for a range of insights and findings? Is it narrow enough to be manageable within your timeframe and your daily work?
Disconnect between parents willingness to embrace technology and teachers seeing the need to
Parents don't have a clear understanding of the benefits of using technology in the classroom
Parents understand the common uses of 21st century technologies they have yet to be exposed to the ways these same tools can empower learning. - parents view them as toys and games - see them as potentially problematic
Parents have not had experiences to lead them to the understanding of how powerful this learning can be
People look at Facebook as a game and not the power that it can be - for example - using ning to grow a personal learning network
Another example - huge problem - things as simple as study island can be very difficult for parents to see the value in it - Jeff
Our question: What experiences can we provide for parents that will allow them to understand the power of 21st learning?
Things to think about...
We will need to address that it's not just about the tools and it's about other 21st century skills.
Are we marketing our movement towards 21st century learning?
Nola: Project presentations - examples of technologies kids have done, rating scale.
brad: PLP experience with parents
Mary: interaction back and forth between parents and students, instead of just giving parents information
Nola: being more transparent - how can we show parents what's going on in classrooms
brad: noted that we need to be careful not to pit one teacher against another as far as what's going on in their classroom - comparing of teachers
jeff: talked about the busy-ness of parents lives and what they currently use technology for - business (banking), entertainment (e.g., facebook), education
School teams have an opportunity to showcase, reflect, and celebrate the success and outcomes of their learning at our culminating event.
Project focus should be: (choose one)
1. Professional development- to share/scale what the team is learning with the rest of the faculty.
2. Instructional- to co-develop a cross curricular project (PBL or Inquiry) unit of study that is co-taught by team.
Documenting Your Project
Your development of the project will be transparent so others can follow and replicate if desired and so you can get feedback from the network along the way.
Steps
1. The problem or question. What is the problem (or opportunity) you wish to address with your project?
Describe what you wish to change, for example, aspects of content (e.g. test scores), process (e.g. ability to collaborate), climate (e.g. morale), or tech use (e.g. embedded use of technology in instruction). Be as specific as possible in describing what you want to change.
2/4/10
Results from our brainsorming:
- PLC - people need to experience what a true PLC is - some people don't see the value in sharing ideas and collaborating with others - some don't understand what a PLC is
- Lack of understanding of what a 21st century classroom looks like
- Teachers are not reaching outside of their classroom walls - broadening our community of learners - "More than a 'penpal' mentality - a true sharing of ideas
- Not enough repetition with PD - PD hasn't been ongoing - not enough follow-up and support - scratching the surface with many initiatives instead of going deeply into one or two.
2. Objectives and Assessment
Develop objectives and authentic assessments for determining what you want learners (adults or students) to be able to know and do after the project and how you will determine they have indeed mastered the objectives your project laid out.
3. Networked Design
Then think about how you will design your project so participants can share, connect, collaborate, or move to some type of collective action.
A portal with district examples of 21st century learning - leads to places where people can comment via blog, you tube, etc about the 21st century learning going on in our district
4. Set the Context
What have others done (at your institution or elsewhere) to address this problem? Do some research as a team to see what others have done. Get ideas. Divi up different research roles to individual team members.
5. Proposal
How will you plan to solve the problem or answer the question? Describe what you will do to address the problem/opportunity described earlier. Are you doing anything differently than others have attempted? Why or why not? Why do you propose that your approach will succeed better than prior attempts or will work better with your students or faculty?
6. Evaluation
How will you determine the success and effectiveness of your solution and the impact of your project? Do you plan to determine pre and post results? How will you know that the behavior of your students/faculty has changed/improved? Note: You may not be able to obtain your results by the end of your year. However, you should have a plan in place to evaluate your project and report on the results. The idea is to develop a solid plan to share with others. If you implement this year or next is entirely up to you. When possible make this an action research project.
7. Timeline
How will your project progress? Indicate the dates of project initiation and completion for each step of your design, implementation, and evaluation.
8. Documentation
How will you document your progress along the way? Will you share in your team group room in NING? Will you create a collaborative blog? A wiki? A Google Doc? Choose one and then everyone will use the document to make the process transparent.
Why do you want to do it? Is it an important and practical problem, something worth your time and effort, something that could be beneficial to you, your students and others?
Is the problem stated clearly and in the form of a question? Is it broad enough to allow for a range of insights and findings? Is it narrow enough to be manageable within your timeframe and your daily work?
Disconnect between parents willingness to embrace technology and teachers seeing the need to
Parents don't have a clear understanding of the benefits of using technology in the classroom
Parents understand the common uses of 21st century technologies they have yet to be exposed to the ways these same tools can empower learning. - parents view them as toys and games - see them as potentially problematic
Parents have not had experiences to lead them to the understanding of how powerful this learning can be
People look at Facebook as a game and not the power that it can be - for example - using ning to grow a personal learning network
Another example - huge problem - things as simple as study island can be very difficult for parents to see the value in it - Jeff
Our question: What experiences can we provide for parents that will allow them to understand the power of 21st learning?
Things to think about...
Don't know where you're going to house resources but I thought this one might be helpful:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/12/02/my-best-posts-articles-about-building-parent-engagement-in-schools-2009/
Cary
Resources:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100110/NEWS0102/1100313/1058/NEWS0102/Schools+tell+good+news+through+Internethere's a glogstermade by Kami Mulzet to educate parents about web 2.0 tools and how they're being used in classrooms.
Some good resources
Patti
PBS Shows on our topic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/resources/
screencasting:
1/14/10 Meeting Notes:
Nola: Project presentations - examples of technologies kids have done, rating scale.brad: PLP experience with parents
Mary: interaction back and forth between parents and students, instead of just giving parents information
Nola: being more transparent - how can we show parents what's going on in classrooms
brad: noted that we need to be careful not to pit one teacher against another as far as what's going on in their classroom - comparing of teachers
jeff: talked about the busy-ness of parents lives and what they currently use technology for - business (banking), entertainment (e.g., facebook), education
School teams have an opportunity to showcase, reflect, and celebrate the success and outcomes of their learning at our culminating event.
Project focus should be: (choose one)
1. Professional development- to share/scale what the team is learning with the rest of the faculty.
2. Instructional- to co-develop a cross curricular project (PBL or Inquiry) unit of study that is co-taught by team.
Documenting Your Project
Your development of the project will be transparent so others can follow and replicate if desired and so you can get feedback from the network along the way.
Steps
1. The problem or question. What is the problem (or opportunity) you wish to address with your project?
Describe what you wish to change, for example, aspects of content (e.g. test scores), process (e.g. ability to collaborate), climate (e.g. morale), or tech use (e.g. embedded use of technology in instruction). Be as specific as possible in describing what you want to change.
2/4/10
Results from our brainsorming:
- PLC - people need to experience what a true PLC is - some people don't see the value in sharing ideas and collaborating with others - some don't understand what a PLC is
- Lack of understanding of what a 21st century classroom looks like
- Teachers are not reaching outside of their classroom walls - broadening our community of learners - "More than a 'penpal' mentality - a true sharing of ideas
- Not enough repetition with PD - PD hasn't been ongoing - not enough follow-up and support - scratching the surface with many initiatives instead of going deeply into one or two.
2. Objectives and Assessment
Develop objectives and authentic assessments for determining what you want learners (adults or students) to be able to know and do after the project and how you will determine they have indeed mastered the objectives your project laid out.
3. Networked Design
Then think about how you will design your project so participants can share, connect, collaborate, or move to some type of collective action.
A portal with district examples of 21st century learning - leads to places where people can comment via blog, you tube, etc about the 21st century learning going on in our district
4. Set the Context
What have others done (at your institution or elsewhere) to address this problem? Do some research as a team to see what others have done. Get ideas. Divi up different research roles to individual team members.
5. Proposal
How will you plan to solve the problem or answer the question? Describe what you will do to address the problem/opportunity described earlier. Are you doing anything differently than others have attempted? Why or why not? Why do you propose that your approach will succeed better than prior attempts or will work better with your students or faculty?
6. Evaluation
How will you determine the success and effectiveness of your solution and the impact of your project? Do you plan to determine pre and post results? How will you know that the behavior of your students/faculty has changed/improved? Note: You may not be able to obtain your results by the end of your year. However, you should have a plan in place to evaluate your project and report on the results. The idea is to develop a solid plan to share with others. If you implement this year or next is entirely up to you. When possible make this an action research project.
7. Timeline
How will your project progress? Indicate the dates of project initiation and completion for each step of your design, implementation, and evaluation.
8. Documentation
How will you document your progress along the way? Will you share in your team group room in NING? Will you create a collaborative blog? A wiki? A Google Doc? Choose one and then everyone will use the document to make the process transparent.